Petrov culture burial site near the village of Taldy (Karkaralinsk District, Karaganda Region)

Abstract

The following paper contains investigation results of the randomly discovered ancient burial site near the village of Taldy (Central Kazakhstan). Accompanying inventory is represented by metal celt-adze, a highly fragmented bracelet with a spiral wound end and a ceramic vessel with a ribbed shoulder and geometric ornament. The obtained material allows attributing the burial site to the Petrov culture of the Bronze Age. The authors of the paper proceed from the weak argumentation of the regional analogue of Petrovka, the Nurtai culture singled out at the end of the 20th century. The current base of sources is characterized by heterogeneity. In this connection, the early Andronian antiquities of Central Kazakhstan should be considered within the framework of the Petrov culture with the possible further allocation of a local variant or stage. Celt-adze found here is quite interesting. It has analogies with the Dolgaya Gora monuments findings (Abashevskaya culture), Tanabergen II (Sintashta culture), Nurataldy-1, Kenotkel XVIII (Petrov culture) and Shaitan Lake II (Koptyakovskaya culture). According to the formal and typological features, the specimens found are divided into two subtypes: the early one Abashev-Sintashta and the later one Petrovsky-Koptyakovsky. The Dolgaya Gora finding presupposes the birth of this type of tools in the late Abashev culture of the Urals. The well-known ethnographic parallels allow us to establish that the products were intended for straining poles, sanding the tree, removing the core from blanks and other works related to woodworking.